MCW tops MVL with late basket
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NEW ULM -- Alyssa Williamson's late drive to the hoop on Thursday night was all that Martin County West needed to escape Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School with a 48-47 win over the Chargers in nonconference girls' basketball action.
MCW (10-4) pushed its winning streak to nine games and snapped MVL's (10-5) five-game winning streak in the process.
With 12.5 seconds left, Lauren Paulsen was fouled inside and managed to knock down her second of two free throws, giving the Chargers a late 47-46 lead. But Williamson got by a host of MVL defenders with around five seconds left and dropped in a layup to help MCW retake the lead.
After MVL head coach Rollin Timm took a timeout right after with 4 seconds left on the clock, the Chargers had time for one shot. After getting past half court, MVL couldn't get a deep 3 to fall, allowing the Mavericks to grab a late rebound and the win.
"The difference was just 1 point, there really wasn't a whole lot of difference," Timm said. "I don't really have anything that I'd say stood out as far as defensively or offensively or anything like that. [MCW] played a very good defense -- we haven't seen that type of a defense yet this year. That made us a little uncomfortable, and we've got to get used to going against that. I guess that would be our biggest thing. But we held them to 49 points, we just couldn't score what we're normally contributing, and give that to their defense."
Williamson and Cheyenne Owens led the Mavericks with 14 points apiece. Melissa Revland added 10 points for MCW.
MVL was led by Emma Nelson's 12 points, Maddie Pearson's 10 points and Paulsen's 7 points and 15 rebounds. Abbie Riederer also added 6 points and six boards for the Chargers.
MCW was the first team to gain a clear advantage, jumping ahead 10-4 early on to force an MVL timeout with 13:46 left in the half. The Chargers were pesky, though, and battled back to trail 23-22 after Pearson banked in a 3 with a little more than four minutes to play in the half.
MCW never led by more than 7 in the half and MVL trailed 25-24 at the break.
A rebound and jumper by Kaylee Hunter gave MVL a 31-30 lead with less than 15 minutes to play. It was MVL's first lead since leading 2-0 in the opening minute.
Minutes later, MVL got a small but solid 5-0 run to take its largest lead of the night, 36-32. Pearson started the run with a jumper, while Nelson added the next bucket inside off of a rebound and was fouled in the process. Nelson couldn't get the extra free throw to drop, but Lexi Fischer grabbed the rebound and was fouled on her shot attempt inside, getting two more shots for MVL at the foul line.
Fischer converted on one of two free throws to end the run. The lead changed hands three times after that 5-0 run.
MVL is at Wabasso for a 7:30 p.m. conference matchup on Friday. Wabasso is currently unbeaten in the conference at 8-0, while MVL is 6-1.
"We've got see if we can come out of the locker room and keep our heads up, have a short memory and turn it around," Timm said of Friday's contest. "And it's going to be another battle."